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Korn guitarist Brian ‘Head’ Welch says he had to leave Korn in 2005 to avoid the band’s ‘dysfunctional and unhealthy’ ways

Guitarist Brian “Head” Welch is back with Korn after leaving the group in 2005, and looking back, he doesn’t regret the time away. In fact, Welch says he had to leave the group to avoid the band’s hazardous ways.

“I couldn’t be around people killing themselves anymore,” Welch told Billboard regarding the time he left Korn. “As far as people doing cocaine or just drinking themselves into a crazy alcoholic and watching people’s lives slip away, I can’t be around that. It was really dysfunctional and unhealthy, so I just needed to get away from that.”

Welch says that the band’s new album, “The Paradigm Shift,” is like a rebirth. “It seems like we’ve been given another chance to live and breathe and really appreciate and be so thankful for what we do,” he said. “We’re so pumped up about this record, and the songs [in concert] are just blowing up.”

Korn is set to hit the road next month with a North American tour that kicks off Nov. 3 at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nev.